Hale Center runoff possible after tie vote

Published 10:47 am, Thursday, May 14, 2015

Voters in Hale Center could return to the polls in early June in a runoff election between Mario Martinez and Richard Castillo for a seat on the city council.

Election night results following Saturday’s vote showed Martinez as apparent victor for the last of three seats on the city council in a five-way race. However, once provision ballots were counted, Martinez and Castillo ended up in a 141-141 deadlock.

On election night, the vote tally showed Mahagan with 188; Rowell, 182; Martinez, 141; Castillo, 138; and J.T. Harrison, 51. However, two provision ballots passed muster to be counted, with Rowell’s vote count climbing to 185 and Castillo’s increasing to 141. Two other provisional ballots were rejected.

In Saturday’s cumulative city council election, Hale Center voters had the option of casting all three votes for the same council candidate, or splitting them up between two or three of the hopefuls. In the case of the provision ballots, each voter decided to cast their allotted votes as a block to a single candidate.

The revised election tally was released about 11 a.m. Tuesday, hours before the council was schedule to meet Tuesday night to canvass the results. Instead, that specific task has been tabled for now.

Interim City Manager Dennis Burton explained that City Attorney Lanny Voss went over the community’s options at Tuesday’s meeting in light of the tie vote after consulting with the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Martinez and Castillo could agree to cast lots to break the tie, by flipping a coin, rolling dice, drawing straws or cutting cards, Burton said. A game of rock, paper, scissors does not qualify as a game of chance according to the Secretary of State’s Office, Burton added.

Either candidate has the option to decline that method of selection, Burton said. In that case, the remaining options are to have one of the candidates voluntarily withdraw or to have a special runoff election.

“The options are really up to the candidates,” Burton said. “The council will meet again Tuesday, and we should know by then what direction we’ll take.”

Both Martinez and Castillo are incumbents, with Castillo completing his first time while Martinez is in his third term. They’re also family - Castillo’s wife is a first cousin to Martinez.

“I think the voters should decide,” says Castillo, who is Hale County’s election coordinator. He is opposed to relying on a game of chance to decide the outcome of the election. “I don’t want to play games with something this important. Either one of us deserves the right to go ahead and be chosen by the people.”

On Thursday, Martinez, who works for Wells Fargo, was still weighing his options.

“I’ll play it by ear, pray about it, and talk about it with the people closest to me. I plan to settle on a decision by the time we meet Tuesday,” Martinez said. “I’m considering what will be in the best interest our city.”

If they decline to cast lots to break the tie and neither candidate withdraws, than an automatic recount is triggered, Burton said. Castillo says the election results likely will not change since the votes were tallied by computer.

“If it goes to a special election, then we have a specific time frame to hold it,” Burton said. “We would have to hold it between June 1 and July 6. At this point, it likely would be around June 6.”

An interesting twist is that since Martinez and Castillo are both incumbents, Rowell apparently can’t take office until one of their two seats becomes open.